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Friday Frustrations: Korean Language

Another week. Another thing to rant about. Thanks to Maria’s Friday Frustrations weekly meme, I have a venue for this week’s frustration.

I’d been here in Seoul for more than three years already. But I can’t speak the language. I can hardly understand the language, too. Don’t you think that’s just a little pathetic?

I did enroll into a Korean language class when I first came over. I can read Korean characters… like a toddler does. But I never progressed. When I started to have Korean friends, they would gleefully speak to me in English. I obliged for my own convenience. To this day, even people from the supermarket I frequent would want to speak a little English to me. LOL. So, I never had a motivation to really learn the language.

Now that my son’s needs are growing, I sense that I am sometimes incapable of doing things because of this lack of Korean language skills. My son’s daycare is a little bit expensive compared to regular daycare because it is the only place that has English speaking songsaengnims here in Mapo. My son, when upset, would run to his American teacher because she’s the only one he can understand. I have very limited conversation to the ajumma we always frequent for our fish and aquarium needs. So, I can’t complain when she gave us a wrong bottle for our aquarium water and all the fish died except for the two janitor fish. I just had to purchase additional fish, to her delight.

My son’s Korean language skills is dependent on me… for now. Hopefully, when he spends more time in the daycare he’ll grasp more Korean words. But, as my friends would always point out to me, he’ll learn faster if I learn the language for him, too.

A few months ago, I willed myself to learn the language. Nothing happened. LOL. What would it take for me to learn it?

I have the same dilemma here. i’ve been here for almost 2 years now. i just envy other Pinoys who have a knack for learning the language, some with even no formal training. mostly i learn baby-talk phrases from my kindergarten students. so when I try talking with the elders, they find it hilarious! 🙂

hi maria – i learned from one of the mommies that my son’s daycare tells the other parents that they have an english-speaking boy (my son) in their school. it’s a plus for them because most Korean moms would really want their children to learn and speak english. that has also been a disadvantage to me because my friends learn from me and i don’t. but really, the bottom line is, i didn’t motivate myself to learn as much as i could:-).

I understand your challenge. I live in a predominantly French province and my son is having a hard time speaking French. He now has the children in the daycare speaking English to him. They learned English but he hasn’t learned french.

I say I understand but I know it must be a lot harder for you because I was born here. Although, I went to English school all my life, I’ve been exposed to French throughout my working career. Plus, I think Korean is probably 10 harder than French.